American West locks in offtake and $2M for | Australian Markets

American West Metals has cemented an off-take accomplice for its flagship Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada, finalising key milestones in a transformative partnership with United Kingdom-based international metals trader Ocean Partners.

American West says its binding off-take settlement and funding commitments will de-risk the project’s path to development and place Storm as a low-capex, high-return copper operation with important useful resource upside throughout its sprawling 2200-square-kilometre tenure.

The company has accomplished a US$2 million (A$3.1 million) non-public placement with Ocean Partners to maneuver the steel trading savants to a 9.4 per cent shareholding in American West.

The capital injection is paired with a binding off-take settlement securing all of the project’s copper, silver and gold manufacturing for a minimal of eight years.

Being nicely and actually invested in the result and outputs of Storm’s development, Ocean Partners will even tin up a appreciable 80 per cent of the initial capital – doubtlessly US$40 million (A$61 million) – through a senior secured loan facility, contingent on bankable feasibility research outcomes for Storm.

American West says the essential alliance is already bearing fruit for each events, as Ocean Partners’ technical advisors optimise processing workflows that can save loads of legwork for the continued pre-feasibility research.

Both the non-public placement and off-take settlement have now been accomplished, considerably de-risking the short- and long-term funding strategy for the project. The funding bundle will enable American West to finish the twin strategy of exploration and streamlined development during 2025.

Located on Somerset Island, 120 kilometres south of Resolute Bay in Nunavut’s Polaris mineral district, the Storm project is close to the Northwest Passage, a seasonal ice-free waterway traditionally used to ship concentrates from world-class zinc-lead mines comparable to Polaris and Nanisivik.

The company has established a 50-person camp to help its persevering with bold exploration actions on the project, which has yielded an spectacular mineral useful resource of 20.6 million tonnes grading 1.1 per cent copper and 3.8 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, equating to 229,000t of contained copper and 2.2 million ounces of silver.

With much less than 5 per cent of the 110km potential copper belt examined by the drill bit, American West is gearing up for a main 2025 drilling program concentrating on high-priority prospects to develop the useful resource base.

Storm’s financial potential in a rising copper setting is obvious to see. It is projecting a US$149 million (A$228 million) web current worth and a 46 per cent inner charge of return (IRR) for a 10-year open-pit operation with a low initial capital price of US$47.4 million (A$72.5 million).

By leveraging all its debt financing, the pre-tax IRR might soar to an spectacular 135 per cent, with a three-year payback period and post-tax income of US$839 million (A$1.28 billion) at conservative copper costs nicely beneath right this moment’s Trump-imposed tariff market.

Adding to the momentum, American West’s latest drilling campaigns have confirmed a number of high-grade discoveries, together with a 47-metre copper sulphide intercept at its Cyclone Deeps deposit, reinforcing the potential for a stacked copper horizon beneath its flagship Cyclone deposit.

With a pipeline of prospects, together with Blizzard and Tornado, ready for drill testing, the company is poised to unlock additional worth alongside the 110km belt.

Partners Ocean Partners are already concerned in steel trading operations in international copper centres comparable to Canada, Chile and China and have seen Storm’s upside.

The finalised off-take deal and funding commitments align with rising international copper demand, pushed by clean vitality and electrification trends. Copper costs not too long ago surpassed US$10,000 (A$15,300) per tonne.

As American West prices into the back half of its 2025 exploration and development season, Storm is shaping up as a low-risk, high-reward copper play. With strong economics, a de-risked funding strategy and a huge, underexplored copper belt in its portfolio, the company seems prefer it may very well be Canada’s subsequent copper participant in a surging pink steel price setting.

Is your ASX-listed company doing one thing attention-grabbing? Contact: [email protected]